NEWS: Deadly 1918 Spanish Flu Recreated By Scientists Found To Be Avian Flu

Scientists in the United States have resurrected the 1918 Spanish Flu virus which killed 50 million people worldwide and now say they are beginning to
understand why the virus was the cause of such a fatal pandemic. Genetic mutations in the 1918 Spanish Flu are being compared to H5N1 samples in the
effort to prevent a similiar pandemic with hopes of being able to predict the cause the supervirus will take. It is hoped that drugs and vaccines can
be created, specifically designed to target the virus mutations found in the experiments. The scientists used pieces of virus taken from the corpse of
a flu victim, which was dug up from a frozen Alaskan Grave seven years ago. The pieces of virus were bought to life, or resurrected by combining the
pieces with modern influenza virus pieces and growing the virus in bacteria. It is believed that several changes in genes caused the 1918 pandemic and
the H5N1 Avian Flu is showing early sign of those same changes. Dr Taubenberger, head of the scientific team has now stated that "We now think that
the best interpretation of the data available to us is that the 1918 virus was an entirely avian-like virus that adapted to humans," .

"We felt we had to recreate the virus and run these experiments to understand the biological properties that made the 1918 virus so exceptionally
deadly," Terrence Tumpey of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, who helped write the reports published jointly this week in
the journals Nature and Science.

The experiment, in which the virus was recreated employing a process called reverse genetics using preserved samples of the 1918 virus, allowed the
researchers to test it in the laboratory and in several animals.

"How did the virus get into humans and how did the pandemic start? Second is to understand how this particular virus was so virulent," Dr
Taubenberger said.

"What can we learn from the lessons of 1918 to prepare for and mitigate against a future influenza pandemic?"

"We now think that the best interpretation of the data available to us is that the 1918 virus was an entirely avian-like virus that adapted to
humans," Dr Taubenberger said.

In particular, he said, a protein called hemagglutinin - the 'H' in flu names - was key. When the 1918 hemagglutinin was replaced with a modern
influenza hemagglutinin, the resulting virus was not very deadly at all.

Also, another protein called neuraminidase was mutated in the 1918 virus in such a way that it could replicate itself under unusual conditions,
perhaps deeper in the lung than other flu viruses. Neuraminidase is another key flu gene that makes up the 'N' in flu designations.

The 1918 flu was an H1N1 flu and very different from H5N1, the researchers stress.

They also said there was no danger to the public from their experiments, which are conducted in biosafety level three labs designed to contain the
virus.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I worry when they decide to create experiements like this. I do understand the need to experiment and find cures for illnesses but this is a time
bomb experiment if accidents occur or the specimans fall into the wrong hands.

It is interesting that now they believe the Spanish Flu to be a human adaption of Avian Flu. I hope more is found out about that in the effort to
conquer the threat but I do still worry about the research proceedures.

From frozen Alaska to the lab: a virus 39,000 times more virulent than flu Only a handful of scientists have security clearance to access the
laboratory at 1600 Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia, home to the US government's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Before entering, they
must pull on a protective hood, don breathing apparatus and pass through electronic fingerprint and retina scanners to prove their identity.

I first heard about them digging it up in a book on the 1918 flu a couple years back...so its not all the news is not all that new....that they have
decoded it is though. Still think rumsfeld would love to get his evil little paws on it.

It was the culmination of work that began a decade ago and involved fishing tiny fragments of the 1918 virus from snippets of lung tissue from two
soldiers and an Alaskan woman who died in the 1918 pandemic. The soldiers' tissue had been saved in an Army pathology warehouse, and the woman had
been buried in permanently frozen ground.

Before gene-sequencing, that was true. Not anymore. Now that criminal-scientists have the human genome, they can build designer diseases that will
kill only a select person, say, whose DNA they have obtained. Or perhaps a whole group of people who have a particular gene, or skin color.

What's that? You don't believe scientists can be criminals too? Ha ha. Read more about war crimes.

Although the hysteria available in this story is obvious, I do think there might be good reason to regenerate this 1918 flu if it somehow results in a
viable cure. I do not know enough about viruses to know if that's a valid reason for this recreation.

Where's my copy of "The Stand"? I need to get myself psyched up for the world my kids will live in.

i posted something like this on ATSNN but for some reson i dont think it got through and i cant find it anywear so i dunno what happend but i guess u
beat me to this article.

just to add heres what i had in my article

"Scientists are doing a recreation of the Spanish flu of 1918. the replica of the flu is now being stored in a level 3 bio-safety lab in Atlanta
Georgia. The flu virus from 1918 was also originally an avian flu virus, but it didn’t mix with any of the current day human viruses but instead the
virus just adapted to be able to affect human (unlike the flu viruses that caused pandemics in 1957 and 1968)

The current avian flu (H5N1) can infect humans although it is very unlikely but has killed at least 65 people so far. Since H5N1 is an avian flu, the
human immune system cant fight it and people who catch the flu don’t stand much of a chance.

The Spanish flu went through several mutations to all of its genes before becoming a huge pandemonium and the H5N1 is currently showing signs of going
through the same mutations"

Also someone posted on here earlier that they've been holding out on this news for a while... So looks like they decided to announce it
"officially" today, but why would they after what was said yesterday??? hmmmm

If it looks like a communications strategy, and smells like media manipulation, why, it must be the new truth!

.

Uh, what are you yapping about anyway? You told me that I was wrong to say that 1918 fluenza is not an avianflu and that I should read
the sources, which I did. And guess what? The fluenza of 1918 as stated in the sources isn't an avian flu. So I gave you a warning not to post
frevilous and idiotic discussion anymore. OK? I moderated your lack of understanding.

Uh, what are you yapping about anyway? You told me that I was wrong to say that 1918 fluenza is not an avianflu and that I should read
the sources, which I did. And guess what? The fluenza of 1918 as stated in the sources isn't an avian flu. So I gave you a warning not to post
frevilous and idiotic discussion anymore. OK? I moderated your lack of understanding.

What is avian influenza?

Avian influenza, or "bird flu", is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. While
all bird species are thought to be susceptible to infection, domestic poultry flocks are especially vulnerable to infections that can rapidly reach
epidemic proportions.

The disease in birds has two forms. The first causes mild illness, sometimes expressed only as ruffled feathers or reduced egg production. Of greater
concern is the second form, known as “highly pathogenic avian influenza”. This form, which was first recognized in Italy in 1878, is extremely
contagious in birds and rapidly fatal, with a mortality approaching 100%. Birds can die on the same day that symptoms first appear.

also, www.cidrap.umn.edu...
excerpt:
In the other study, researchers at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) report that the close resemblance of the 1918 virus to avian flu
viruses suggests that the 1918 virus was an avian strain that managed to adapt to humans without first acquiring any genes from existing human flu
viruses. Further, the researchers found that several of the same mutations that differentiated the 1918 virus from avian flu viruses are found in the
H5N1 virus, which has killed more than 60 people in Asia. The report appears in Nature.

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